Found Radio

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I was driving with the kid over a bridge here in town and saw a radio laying along the side by the barrier, so went back around and picked up the radio and the back cover, no battery though. It’s a Motorola Radius SP50+. They aren’t expensive little HHs, but it’s definitely tough. I can’t tell if it’s the VHF or UHF model, I figure the antenna would provide a clue but I’m still stumped. Anyway, I went out to the garage and dug an old wallwart out of the collection and stripped the wires off so I can power up the radio. It’s too weak to allow a transmission but it should receive ok. There seems to be only one channel programmed into it too BTW.

Questions:

 How do I find its owner to enable a joyous reunion?

 In the event the above proves impossible, would it be worth it to buy a battery and charger and program it for the ham band? (I think the range of the UHF radio will allow ham and FRS/GMRS freqs, but the VHF will not.)

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As for finding the proper owner, I would suggest one or both of the following.

1) Contact your local law enforcement. If the radio has no battery then it may be stolen and the person decided to take the battey for some other device.

2) Contact any and all local commercial radio dealers. Give them the serial number. Most times they record the serial number of every radio they sell for warrenty perposes.

a) While your at it you could ask them to figure out which band the radio is on.

3) Put an add in your local paper stating that you found a radio. Give a your contact information but little else. Then as people call about it you make them describe the radio. The true owner should be able to tell you just about everything about the radio, and may even have an idea of the area it was lost in.

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My guess would be that it fell off of a construction workers vehicle or something. They use radios like that on job sites and such, and They might have left one laying on top of their toolbox or something.

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My guess would be that it fell off of a construction workers vehicle or something. They use radios like that on job sites and such, and They might have left one laying on top of their toolbox or something.

That's exactly what I was thinking, as the elevated roadway I found it on had long curve. The battery prolly flew out and is laying in the grass somewhere down below, I just need to go find it. Exactly the reason I had a kid.

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That is simply amazing that you had a kid just so he/she could go look for a battery in the grass and it really happend. Are you going to keep the kid after he/she finds the battery or are you going to get a new one for something else

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That is simply amazing that you had a kid just so he/she could go look for a battery in the grass and it really happend. Are you going to keep the kid after he/she finds the battery or are you going to get a new one for something else

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That is simply amazing that you had a kid just so he/she could go look for a battery in the grass and it really happend. Are you going to keep the kid after he/she finds the battery or are you going to get a new one for something else

Duh, he has to keep the kid.

What if he has to look for another battery sometime in the future?

I’ve been training the kid his whole life for just this sort of contingency. When he was four years old, I’d tell him to bring me eight quarters, which I would throw as far into the woods as I could. Then I’d tell him he couldn’t have dinner until he found all eight of them. I had the foresight to keep one of the quarters in my pocket though, so he’d be out there for hours until he’d collapse in the heat. Then I’d walk up and say, “Look, here’s the last one right next to your hand!”

That reminds me, we’ve not played the quarter finding game in a while, and it’s supposed to be up to 95° today. Guess I’ll be eating alone tonight.

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Look inside of the battery compartment and look for a serial that will look like: XXXNNNXXXX

X = Letter

N = Number

With this serial, Motorola can see what dealer the radio was sold to. At that point, the dealer MIGHT be able to tell you the buyer IF they kept those records. We keep them just for this sort of purpose.

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Look inside of the battery compartment and look for a serial that will look like: XXXNNNXXXX

X = Letter

N = Number

With this serial, Motorola can see what dealer the radio was sold to. At that point, the dealer MIGHT be able to tell you the buyer IF they kept those records. We keep them just for this sort of purpose.

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Look in the back and find the MODEL NUMBER not the S/N write it down, goto www.batlabs.com follow link to Hand Held Radios and look up the model number in the break down chart, this will tell what band or Freq. the radio works on, and the output power, you will also be able to find out if this radio will work in the ham bands, Programing might be a problem for you need and OLD/SLOW computer for the software(386/486) and you will need a Rib Box and cables, it is a major invesment to start progamming Motorola radios and they are quite fussy about their software( not cheep) don't get me wrong I love Motorola Radios, I own many of them and I do my own programming, but it is not something for the novice to try by themselfs

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

WØWEB

I was driving with the kid over a bridge here in town and saw a radio laying along the side by the barrier, so went back around and picked up the radio and the back cover, no battery though. It’s a Motorola Radius SP50+. They aren’t expensive little HHs, but it’s definitely tough. I can’t tell if it’s the VHF or UHF model, I figure the antenna would provide a clue but I’m still stumped. Anyway, I went out to the garage and dug an old wallwart out of the collection and stripped the wires off so I can power up the radio. It’s too weak to allow a transmission but it should receive ok. There seems to be only one channel programmed into it too BTW.

Questions:

 How do I find its owner to enable a joyous reunion?

 In the event the above proves impossible, would it be worth it to buy a battery and charger and program it for the ham band? (I think the range of the UHF radio will allow ham and FRS/GMRS freqs, but the VHF will not.)

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...the model number in the break down chart, this will tell what band or Freq. the radio works on...

The model number will NOT tell you what frequencies are programmed into the radio, only the band and bandsplit. Only reading the radio with Motorola RSS or using a frequency counter can tell you that and even at that, only the transmit frequencies, not receive or PL/DPL.